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Thursday, 6 August 2015

Nacer Chadli's stunner and Tom Carroll's strike helped Tottenham beat AC Milan 2-0 to clinch third in the Audi Cup, as Hugo Lloris made his return from injury.Spurs, who lost 2-0 to Real Madrid on Tuesday, were good value for the victory at the Allianz Arena against lacklustre Milan.
Chadli opened the scoring with a fine long-range curling effort in the eighth minute and Mauricio Pochettino's men rounded off the win with Carroll's well-taken goal in the second half.
There was further good news for Tottenham as goalkeeper Lloris came on as a second-half substitute, marking his first appearance since breaking his wrist last month and offering hope that he will play in their Premier League opener against Manchester United on Saturday. Chadli gave Milan an early warning with a fourth-minute free-kick that went just wide of the left-hand post.
There was better to come, though, as he broke the deadlock in superb style. Chadli received the ball on the right and jinked inside Davide Calabria before bending his shot into the top left-hand corner from 25 yards.
Alessandro Matri attempted an audacious lob over Luke McGee in the Spurs goal as Milan sought an equaliser, while at the other end Christian Abbiati made a smart stop low to his left to deny Carroll - who spent last season on loan at Swansea City - finishing a well-worked move.
Spurs fans were given a welcome sight in the 55th minute when Lloris made his return to replace McGee.
A deserved second goal duly arrived for Spurs in the 71st minute. Close-season signing Kieran Trippier played a clever throughball into the right of the penalty area and Carroll swept home first time into the far corner past substitute goalkeeper Antonio Donnarumma.
Lloris gave a timely reminder of his quality to parry away Rodrigo Ely's stinging half-volley in the closing stages, as Tottenham safely saw out the win.
Milan, meanwhile, failed to score in both Audi Cup outings, losing 3-0 to hosts Bayern Munich on Tuesday, and have plenty of hard work ahead of their first Serie A game at Fiorentina later this month.